“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” (Jude 3, NIV)
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” (Jude 24, NIV)
What Jude’s letter lacks in size it more than makes up for with love and urgency.
The way Jude wrote his letter makes it sound a little like one of those old-time gospel calls. As anachronistic as it is, it has hints of Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley.
Here’s the truth and warning.
Jude begins by stating up-front the reason for his writing. He was very eager to write about the common salvation he and his readers share; however, before he could write about that, something changed his mind. Whatever it was, it caused him to shift the focus of his letter from a hearty celebration of salvation to a hearty urgent call for them to contend for the faith.
He then spends almost all his time in the letter making sure his readers feel the reality of his call on them to contend—to persevere.
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.
They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
“In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
Jude has loved them throughout the letter by telling them exactly what they needed to hear. They needed to know the truth and the danger that surrounded them. This bad news was good for them.
You can almost feel what Jude’s readers must have felt as they read through the letter. The steady growing dread that what Jude wrote really is the truth. But then, just before they couldn’t stand to take another bit of truth, he leaves them with possibly the greatest doxology every written.
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24-25, NIV)
Jude’s original readers were responsible to make sure they didn’t fall into the many traps that surrounded them. And yet, the responsibility placed on them is not one requiring them to micromanage every minute aspect of their lives; instead, it’s a call for them to focus on a person—one person. Jesus is the one who is able to keep them from stumbling.
And so he is for us. The world is full of traps because the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers and he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. You cannot get through it on your own, but you can with one person—the one who is able.